Tunable system for production of mirror and cusp configurations using chassis of permanent magnets

Highlights: • A nonmagnetic chassis holding an array of permanent magnets was designed and built. • With no central magnet, three solenoid-like domains and two magnetic cusps arise. • Experimental measurements verify modeling results for open- and closed-bore setups. • A tunable system was made to provide symmetric linear translation of two chassis. • The dual-chassis system can supply mirror, cusp, and multipolar field topologies. Compact arrays of permanent magnets have shown promise as replacements for electromagnets in applications requiring magnetic cusps and mirrors. An adjustable system capable of suspending and translating a pair of light, nonmagnetic chassis carrying such sources of magnetic field has been designed and constructed. Using this device to align two cylindrical chassis, strong solenoid-like domains of field, as well as classic biconic cusp and magnetic mirror topologies, are generated. Employing a pair of ring-shaped chassis instead, the superposition of their naturally-emitted cusps is demonstrated to produce sextupolar and octupolar magnetic fields.